By Bus & Rail

This ad’s for you, if Metro shifts gears

It’s been 13 years since they dimmed the lights and sounded last call for beer and wine advertising on local buses and trains.

Now those ads could be on tap again.

A proposal to bring back such advertising goes before a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee this week. The idea has surfaced as Metro faces a $181 million deficit—and likely staff cuts and service reductions–in the coming fiscal year that begins in July.

CBS Outdoor, Metro’s advertising vendor, said it would split the revenue generated by the new beer and wine advertising with the agency, generating about $500,000 a year for Metro, according to the report to be considered by the Executive Management and Audit Committee on Thursday. That amount would be on top of Metro’s revenue from other CBS Outdoor advertising, which is set at a flat fee of $27.9 million in the coming fiscal year.

Ads for tobacco and other alcoholic beverages would remain off-limits.

Warren Morse, Metro’s deputy executive officer for communications, said the idea of reinstating beer and wine advertising originated with CBS Outdoor and was being presented to the committee as one possible revenue-generating option.

“We didn’t bring this up to be controversial,” he said. Morse said that the cities of Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Inglewood allow beer and wine advertising on bus shelters in their areas, which account for 85% of the shelters in the county.

Metro banned tobacco and alcohol advertising on its vehicles in April, 1997, on a motion by then-Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who was also on the Metro board of directors at the time. (The current policy is here. )

Burke, who retired in 2008, said in an interview that she had introduced the motion as a matter of good health policy. She said public transportation passengers are a captive audience, and alcoholics, in particular, could be placed in a difficult situation if they are unable to avoid seeing such ads.

“You have an audience that is almost kidnapped,” Burke said. “I just wonder how much money is going to be generated to make it worth it.”

Metro riders interviewed this week seemed divided on whether beer and wine ads should be allowed to share their afternoon commute.

“I don’t want to see it,” said Red Line subway passenger Joe Barry. “There is already enough exposure. I don’t see why it has to be featured down here as well.”

“I don’t need to have it in my face every minute of the day,” added Paul Donaldson, another Red Line rider. “I can get that enough from TV.”

But Avis Jackson, riding the Purple Line, said, “It doesn’t matter because the advertising is everywhere else and is so overexposed.”

Added Michael Paz, waiting to board the Purple Line: “It’s fine with me if it creates some money for the city.”

CBS Outdoor senior vice president Rich Ament said the change makes financial sense. He said beer and wine advertising represents a “serious opportunity” for Metro to receive revenue from what is “essentially a recession-proof product.”

“Beer and wine advertising is everywhere,” Ament said. “The only place it doesn’t exist is on the (L.A.) transit system… It exists pretty much everywhere else.”

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is among the big city transit systems that allow such advertising. But San Francisco’s does not.

“Tobacco and alcohol advertising are seen as not appropriate on public transportation vehicles that are publicly funded,” said Murray Bond, deputy director for communications at San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency.

Posted 3/17/10

Bus riders to be affected by 405 project, too

Some Westside bus passengers will soon be taking the scenic route.

And Metro would like to apologize for that in advance.

Starting in mid-March, patrons of various Metro bus lines in the Sepulveda Pass and West Los Angeles could be facing delays and detours due to the 405 Sepulveda Pass Widening Project, which will add a 10-mile northbound carpool lane to the freeway.

Bus lines that travel on the freeway and through the construction area will be affected off and on until the project’s completion, now scheduled for 2013.

Lines slated to be affected are as follows:

• Line 2-302: Sunset Boulevard
• Lines 4 and 704: Santa Monica Boulevard
• Lines 20, 720 and 920: Wilshire Boulevard
• Line 761: Sepulveda Boulevard and 405

Regular updates are available on Twitter.

Posted 3/11/10

MTA board looks at Regional Connector alternative

An alternative design for the Regional Connector Transit Corridor project will come before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board at its meeting next week.

The Regional Connector, which is receiving Measure R funding, will help Gold Line, Blue Line and eventually Expo Line commuters make seamless connections across the region.

The design alternative, which would go underground in Little Tokyo, is being recommended by Metro staff to be included for study as part of the project’s environmental review process.
The MTA board meets at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 25.

Posted 2-18-10

Growing the Orange Line

The Orange Line is going places.

Brutoco Engineering & Construction, Inc. has been selected to design and build a four-mile northerly extension of the Orange Line from Warner Center to Chatsworth.

The busway currently runs from Warner Center to North Hollywood, where riders can catch the Red Line subway to Downtown L.A. or points beyond.

The Orange Line has been a hit with riders—currently carrying more than 20,000 each weekday, triple the number originally envisioned when it opened in 2005—and the extension seeks to build on that popularity while expanding transportation “connectivity” within the area.

The Orange Line extension project includes four new stations, to be located at Sherman Way, Roscoe Boulevard, Nordhoff Street and the Chatsworth Metrolink Station.

Other elements of the extension include new platforms at Canoga Station and an elevated bridge over railroad tracks at Lassen Street. In addition, the project includes a bicycle/pedestrian path connecting to an existing path at Brown’s Creek, a park-and-ride lot at the Sherman Way Station, expanded parking at the Chatsworth Metrolink Station, bridge crossings over the Los Angeles River and Santa Susana Wash, a satellite bus parking facility, and landscaping and street improvements.

The extension is expected to open in the summer of 2012.

The $82.5 million design build contract awarded to Brutoco is the first to be funded by Measure R, the half-cent sales tax passed by voters in 2008. The overall budget for the extension project is $215.6 million.

Read our earlier story on the Orange Line here.

Posted 2/16/10

Return of the Mini-Vib

The Mini-Vib’s back, and this time it’s bringing along its seismic sidekick, the Micro-Vib.

Westside subway extension planners are sending the Mini-Vib truck back into service next week on a new stretch of Selby Avenue north of Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood. The vibration-creating vehicle will roll over sensors in the street between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 15. (The work was scheduled on the President’s Day holiday to avoid disrupting classes at Emerson Middle School.) This round of testing comes after preliminary data suggested going a little further north on Selby with the Mini-Vib.

That work will be followed up with an appearance by the Micro-Vib on Wednesday and Thursday nights on Selby Avenue from Santa Monica Boulevard north. The hand-held “vibration box” is designed to produce gentler vibrations than the truck. With noise levels of around 60 decibels—about as loud as normal conversation–it will be used between 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. both nights. More Micro-Vib tests may be scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 27 as well.

The Mini-Vib truck also will be paying a return visit to Century Park West next week. Testing will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 16 from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. between 1930 Century Park West and Santa Monica Boulevard. The work is needed because of a malfunction during the earlier round of testing.

This letter to residents, posted by Metro’s blog The Source, has more on the testing process, and describes the impact on traffic, including lane closures on Santa Monica Boulevard the night of Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Ultimately, results of the field seismic tests will be used to help determine routes for tunnels connecting the Century City and Westwood/UCLA subway stations. The research centers on a branch of the Santa Monica fault in the area. Full information on the project, which is still in the planning stages, can be found here.

Next Page »